TEAM Group

TEAM’s origins go back to the 1960s when Frank Grace, a native of Steubenville, Ohio and graduate of John Carroll University moved to London in 1968 to establish eight European Offices for Global International.

Frank established his own company, American Overseas Shipping, in 1971 and sold to a subsidiary of the Grand Metropolitan Group, one of Europe's largest conglomerates, in 1973.

Returning to the moving industry in 1977, he founded Amertrans, in partnership with Yogesh Mehta, part of the English Asian community forced out of Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972. Together, they then acquired their old company, American Overseas Shipping, along with the subsidiary of Grand Metropolitan who had originally acquired his company in 1973.

Over the next 25 years, the company traded as Amertrans operating within the corporate international moving market, working particularly for major oil companies. With the fairly dramatic changes in [http://www.andrewbibby.com/pdf/Global%20Mobility.pdf global mobility] , the company began an aggressive mergers and acquisition programme. Between 2001-2005, the company acquired many of the leading moving and relocation companies across Europe, including Transeuro Worldwide Movers, Nijman, D J Smit, Desbordes, Global International Europe, Morton Fraser Relocation and Executive Relocation Services.

With the Group’s move into full service relocation, the company rebrands to TEAM Relocation and the formation of the TEAM Group begins. In 2007, the Group acquires many of the European moving operations of SIRVA [http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=221144 SIRVA signs definitive agreement with TEAM Group, PR Newswire, March 3 2008 ] , giving it some 42 locations in 14 countries. This is followed by the acquisition of SIRVA’s UK moving operations in 2008, which includes the world famous brand of Pickfords [http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/transport/article3378768.ece. Pickfords set to be snapped up by major rival, Times Online, February 16 2008 ] . The Group now consists of three primary divisions: TEAM Allied providing moving services, TEAM Relocations servicing the relocation activity, and a Specialist division which includes commercial activities across Europe. The TEAM Group remains independent and currently employs 2,100 staff in 109 locations across 15 European countries.

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